Postmodernist Identity Construction and Consumption

With the transition from modernism to post-modernism, identity as a concept has started to become redefined in sociology literature. The aim of this study is to show that post-modernism and symbolic interactionism are fused together to determine both the scene as well as an actor's identity. In that way, the interaction of a social structure with a culture won't be completely ignored, and, with the opinion that the categorized roles can skilfully be shaped and diversified by actors, they are then able to move away from a pure determinism. However, individuals pay more attention to their appearance more than who they are in order to be accepted by each group. In this manner, a metaphysical shell game begins. In the following study, the 'Social Appearance Anxiety' is used as an indicator of this game. This study was based on the analysis of the data collected through a questionnaire given to 181 students studying at Hitit University. The INDCOL [Singelis et al., 1995] was used to determine the cultural values of students in four dimensions; namely, vertical individualism-collectivism, and, horizontal individualism-collectivism. To measure the 'Social Appearance Anxiety', the validity of the Turkish version of the scale developed by Hart et al. in 2008 [Dogan, 2010] was used. The findings show that individuals having greater vertical individualistic value are more malleable to have social appearance anxiety. The findings also indicate that individuals having more collectivist value are not affected by this kind of anxiety. Also, the new generation of advertisements especially emphasizes the importance of appearance. Due to this trend, a person's Social Appearance Anxiety can result in excessive consumption for the more individualistic individual